McGavick makes end run on his 'sins'

By CHI-DOOH LI, P-I COLUMNIST

Published
10:00 pm PDT, Wednesday, August 30, 2006

U.S. Senate candidate Mike McGavick's recent disclosure of his DUI, marital troubles and other assorted peccadilloes is a reminder that in the fishbowl world of politics, a candidate must live by this tried and true dictum for anyone in public life: That which you least want your worst enemy to know about you will surely become known.

Part II of the dictum holds that the information will come to public light at the worst possible time.

Try to keep your unsavory past secret, and you will suffer the fate of a long list of high political office aspirants who crashed and burned in various degrees when their past came out to haunt them. On the national presidential campaign scene over the past four decades, these names are enshrined in the lore of the lurid:

Thomas Eagleton, running mate to George McGovern in 1972, tried to hide his three hospitalizations for depression during which he underwent electroshock therapy. He dropped out of the race shortly after McGovern claimed to be "1,000 percent" behind him.

Gary Hart, front-runner for the 1988 Democratic nomination, was hounded out of the race after the media revealed his extramarital affair with model Donna Rice, including an overnight yacht trip to Bimini on a vessel named Monkey Business.

Pat Robertson's ill-considered run for the 1988 GOP nomination came to a dead end with the media's hounding him over his trifecta of shame: dodging hard combat duty in Korea, a shotgun marriage and a padded resume.

Dan Quayle, picked by George H.W. Bush in 1988 as his running mate, barely had time to take in the wonder of it all when the news came out that he had avoided Vietnam War service by manipulating his way into the National Guard. He also had to face up to later disclosures of poor academic achievement in college and law school.

Bill Clinton, a solid favorite for the 1992 Democratic nomination going into the New Hampshire primary, nearly lost his footing over allegations of an extended extramarital affair with Gennifer Flowers. In a deposition later given in the Paula Jones sexual harassment case, Clinton admitted to having had a sexual tryst with Flowers.

Bob Dole's 1996 presidential campaign stalled when revelations were made public of an extramarital affair in the late '60s.

Five days before the 2000 election, George W. Bush disclosed a 1976 DUI arrest. The information had been leaked to the media, and Bush pre-empted the media with his public confession.

Closer to home we have memorable examples as well:

John O'Connell's 1968 campaign for governor was torpedoed by disclosures of a serious gambling habit.

John Rosellini, shortly after being nominated by Democrats for the 1980 state attorney general race, ran into a buzz-saw of allegations by the Seattle P-I that he had embezzled funds from client trust accounts. The charges sank his campaign, and he managed to get a pitiable 16 percent of the votes in the November election. The Washington Supreme Court disbarred Rosellini in 1982 over the charges.

Mike Lowry, elected governor in 1992, had to give up any thought of running for re-election when a staff member accused him of sexual harassment.

In McGavick's case, his political advisers probably subjected him to a rigorous "closet skeleton" disclosure exercise early in the decision-making process to flush out any potentially embarrassing tidbits from the past.

Don't be surprised if the public confession two weeks ago was carefully orchestrated from the outset. A mid-August vacation season revelation when the average voter's mind is on anything but politics is far better than an 11th-hour media feeding frenzy.

McGavick's exercise in candor likely will succeed as a case of carefully managed damage control. Early reviews do not indicate any major loss of credibility or support.

The whole affair serves as a refresher course on politicians being entirely fallible humans like the rest of us. Other than in Hollywood movies, and in Rush Limbaugh and Maureen Dowd commentaries, no politician is as bad or beyond redemption as he or she is portrayed. Neither is any politician quite as good as one would like others to believe.